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After all the fuss, Brown says I’m still in charge . . . and it looks as though pound is here for years

By Jim McCue

June 19 2003, 1:00am, The Times

EURO notes may depict a fantasy land but the pound will remain rooted in reality.

To the delight of eurosceptics, the Royal Mint has published four new designs for pound coins to be released one at a time from next year until 2007.

In stark contrast to the much-maligned fictitious buildings depicted on euro notes, Britain’s new coins will bear images of real bridges in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Designed by the wood engraver Edwina Ellis, the coins will celebrate solid British engineering, featuring (clockwise from top left) the cantilever Forth railway bridge in Scotland (1890), Thomas Telford’s Menai Strait Bridge in Wales (1826), the prizewinning Millennium Bridge in Gateshead, the world’s first rotating bridge, and Sir John Macneill’s Egyptian Arch on the…

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